Day 164: When Fear is Good...

Psalms 56:3

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Anybody have something that scares the crap out of you? Like one thing that you will just say no to and not look back or regret it? I know we all want to be brave and walk around like we aren’t afraid of anything, but we all have at least one fear. There’s something out there, besides God, that shakes us to our core. For me that thing is needles, I am terrified of needles, and I’m not talking about not liking needles. I mean it’s bad, I’m worse than a two-year-old. There are tears, kicking and screaming, bribing, running, multiple explanations, and eventually, my mom has to hold me down. All of this for a split second of pain, and it happens every time I go to the doctor. It got so bad to the point where I would send myself into an asthma attack and the doctors would have the machines ready because they knew that Dyamond was going to act a fool. And I never let them down. The thing about this it is that each time I went to the doctor I had to face and overcome this fear, and I knew that I would come out alright because my mom or dad would be there holding my hand through it. It took a couple of decades but I’m not as afraid as I used to be. Fear is a temporary thing, we won’t always be afraid. We won’t be scared forever.  sometimes we’re afraid to do something and then we realize that it’s not that bad after all. I truly believe that facing our fears head on is how we overcome them. The same way my mother and father was there holding my hand or holding me down is the same way God leads us to overcome our fears. God is there holding our hands and walking with us through these valleys of fear.

Fear turns us to God. Fear moves us to act. Fear does something to us that bravery can’t, it reveals our weakness, and therefore our need for God, in whom we get our strength and courage. When I’m scared the first thing I do is scream Jesus. You don’t even have to be Christian to understand me on this one. When we’re afraid, it doesn't matter if we haven’t talked to God in years, we start praying like we are trying to call down every angel in heaven. This is why I say fear can be a good thing and can be used to bring us closer to God. Fear is scary and uncomfortable and it pushes us to act. Recently my two-year-old nephew was choking on an apple. My sister was trying to get him-him to spit it up. His face started turning red and before I knew it I jumped out my seat like a superhero to save him. The fear that went through my body when I saw his little face turning red as he was trying to breathe is indescribable. It was almost as if I flew out of my seat to get to him. He’s fine now, we got him to spit it up. But it was my fear of losing him in those few moments that pushed me out of my seat to get that apple out of his mouth. This is the type of fear that drives us to trust God and lean on Him. Even when we are afraid of things, and life we can put our trust in Him and know that whatever happens, we will be okay.

We all want to be fearless but we don’t start out that way. We don’t come out the womb brave and taking on the world unless you’re Wonder Woman. We learn over time to be courageous, we are taught not to fear things as we get older. God gives us courage as we grow in Him every day. I know we all want to claim to be superhuman and unafraid but we’re just human and there are some scary things in this world. However, it is overcoming them through Christ that gives us courage. If we’re never afraid we will never know what it’s like to have courage. Now when I talk about fear in this context I’m not talking about the crippling fear that stops you, I’m talking about the type of fear that moves you. The type of fear that keeps you going. The type of fear that motivates you. This is fear that doesn’t stop your life or cause you to have panic attacks. No, this is godly fear. That’s how we fear God, this type of fear is driven by love, This type of fear is good. This is the type of fear that is birthed from love and respect. This is the type of fear that says, Lord, I love you so much I don’t want to lose you. I’m going to keep going in life because my fear of losing you is greater than my fear of anything else.

Fear can be a good thing, but don’t let it paralyze you or stop you. It’s okay to be afraid we’re human, it happens that that moment is when we turn to God. We cannot let fear stop us, let it motivate us and push us. Fear drives faith when you're afraid just lean on Him, turn to God.

Reflection

1. What are you afraid of?
2. Do you believe that God is bigger than your fears?
3. When is fear a good thing?
4. Can you tell the difference from when fear is good and when fear is bad?
5. What is it?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Ask good to show you the difference between godly fear and worldly fear.

I love you, I hope you have a magnificent day or evening, be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 165, and follow the blog!

Day 120: The Courage to Act

1 Chronicles 28:20

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Joshua 1:6,9

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them...Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Sometimes we are tasked with something that seems overwhelming, and the broadness of the task makes it look impossible. Sometimes the things we are meant to conquer does not seem conquerable. These are the moments God tells us to be strong and courageous. Even though we are afraid and we have no clue what the outcome will be we have to approach as if we know with every ounce of our being that we will be alright.

Courage-the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty,danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

My favorite part about this definition is it says that is the the quality of the mind or spirit that enables a person. It is the quality of our mind and spirit that allows us to face difficulty, danger, fear, or whatever it may be. The simple definition of quality is how good or bad something is. Our mind has to be focused on God and our spirits in tune with Him, only then can we find the courage to face the things in life that nearly paralyzes us with fear. It is faith in knowing that God goes before us, that He is bigger than what seems to be the biggest mountain in our lives. He’s there to help us climb even when we think we can’t. When we think we can’t do something, we look to God and see just how great He is. How he equips us to do the very things we think we are incapable of doing. The thing about God is that He is capable of everything and anything.

This brings me back to the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17), but also Goliath and Israel. Goliath was a champion and by the way he talked he thought he was untouchable, and up until this point he probably was. The way he was described, he’s the guy that you don’t want to mess with. He comes and calls out the army of Israel, they were all there for a battle. Then Goliath comes and basically says, “Try me.” He tells them to send someone and if that person is able to kill him then they will be servants to the Israelites. Saul and the Israelites were shaking in their boots, they were scared. David comes and he’s like, do not be afraid, I got this. Saul is like, no you're too young, this man has been fighting wars since his youth. David was like, I’ve taken down lions and bears, I can take him down too.  

Then David says, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” David knew that it was God who would equip him with whatever he needed to defeat Goliath. He wasn’t out there fighting lions and bears alone, he knew that it was God delivered him from the hands of these beasts, that could have ripped him to pieces.

*It’s about to get crazy. *

They go to put armour on David and it wasn’t good for him. He hadn’t tested the armour so he said he could not fight with it. He took the armour off,

*pause, he took off his armour to go fight Goliath, a war champion. WHAT!?!*

Not only does he take of the armour he goes and picks out five rocks, puts it in his pouch and heads toward Goliath.

*Okay pause for another second.

Now if I were there I would have been afraid for David, Just like, what are you doing David! You need this armour. What are you going to do with rocks! Have you seen him?! I would have been having a melt down.* But David doesn’t, he courageously walked into the face of danger carrying five rocks in a pouch. The Philistine sees David’s size and starts trash talking, and David is #unbothered. He tells the Philistine that he comes in the name of the Lord, and that God will deliver him (Goliath) into his heads. David then proceeds to tell Him, not only will I kill you but I will cut off your head. By this point you just kind of start rooting for David, like I don’t know how you are going to do it, but I know you are.  

*Here’s where it gets intense.*

David ran towards the battle line as the Philistine started approaching. He ran confidently with five rocks in a pouch up against a fully armed war champion. David took a rock and slung it and hit the Philistine in the forehead. the scripture says, “The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.” Then he cut off his head with his own sword.  

All that to say, that if david can defeat Goliath with a rock, then we can conquer every giant in our lives. We have to have faith in God, and know that apart from him we can do nothing. I know it’s scary and sometimes we have to put ourselves directly in the crossfire. Sometimes we have to run straight into the face of danger in order to defeat it. We have to be strong and courageous, as God tells Joshua.  Courage gives us strength even when we are afraid.

God is calling us to do things that might scare the crap out of us, but He is there with us every step of the way. We just have to act, do it. Even if you’re trembling, do it, and do it courageously. Fear does not belong to us, and it will not stop us from conquering these giants and mountains in our lives. Courage will enable us to do the things we thought we could never do. We find this courage in the Lord, we have it through him. Our spirits are fed by God and His word, and that is where we get courage from. Know that you are capable and you cannot do it alone. God’s got your back, if He tells you to step forward, don’t back down.

Reflection

1. Is there a Goliath in your life?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above question guide your prayer today. Whatever struggles or fears you have give it to God. Talk to God about whatever is on your heart today, whatever stood out to you talk to God about it. Have a conversation with God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 121! Enjoy you weekend, and if you are going into finals week, you are in my prayers.

Day 86: Recap

It's recap Sunday everyone.

Day 79: Push Yourself

Today we talked about pushing ourselves. Being able to pray for, and encourage ourselves when there is no one else around or no one to call. We focused on the scriptures 1 Samuel 30:6, and Philippians 3:12.

"We also have to push ourselves when we are tired, when we are ready to give up, when it’s too painful, when everything is telling us to quit. We have to push ourselves. If we want that blessing, if we want that life of eternity with Christ, we must push ourselves to keep going even when we think we can’t take it anymore."

Day 80: But...

Today we talked about the hope in 'but..', when we see this word in a sentence we know that it's not over, there's more to come. We focused on the scripture Psalms 31:14.

"There’s always a but, there’s always an answer. But we have to look up from our sorrow and our heartache and the bad situation we are in and look to where we will find hope."

Day 81: Burdened with Sin

Today we talked about carrying the weight of sin and not being held down by our iniquities, and knowing that just because we are born into sin does not mean we have to stay in sin. We focused on the scriptures, Psalms 32:5 and 31:10.

"We cannot allow our souls to rot in a sinful hole because we are too shameful or too embarrassed to go to God, or we’re too full of pride. We all sin, believe it or not."

Day 82: Comfort Zones

We talked about comfort zones today and how detrimental they are to our spiritual growth. We focused on Joshua 1:9 and 2 Timothy 1:7.

"What keeps us from stepping outside of those comfort zones many times is fear.... Most of the time it’s fear... All of the time it’s fear. We are afraid of what will happen, where we will go next. But we must know that God is on the other side of fear. As long as we have faith in Him, as long as we have a relationship with God there is nothing to fear."

Day 83: A Step in the Right Direction

Today we had a guest writer, a friend of mine Alex Molloy. Talking about going in the direction God has laid before us. We focused on Proverbs 3:5-6.

" In order to commit to the God direction for your life, you must first submit. Submit to commit! Living a life where submission precedes direction results in God making all your paths straight."

Day 84: An Anchor for My Soul

Today we talked about being unshakable and unmovable as Christ is the anchor for our souls. Focusing on Psalms 46:5.

"Essentially we are the boat and God is the anchor. The water, wind,  and waves are the things getting in the way. The things that would move us if we did not have a strong foundation in the Lord. We are living in a world where the wind blows every which way, and very strong winds I might add. We live in a world where the current of the water is constantly changing. If we do not have something to hold on to or something to ground us we will get thrown from place to place, position to position, and find ourselves picking up and starting over for the rest of our lives. If we do not find something to keep us still, we will move every time the wind moves, we will float away with the current. But when our souls are anchored in Christ we are unmovable, and unshakable."

Day 80: Push Yourself

1 Samuel 30:6

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Sometimes in life, there will be no one there to push us forward, there will be no one there to hold us accountable, or pick us up. It is in these moments that we must learn to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We must learn to push ourselves, we must learn to hold ourselves accountable.

When I was a youth pastor I would always talk to some of the youth department and they would say something like, “When I want to sin, I just picture your face, or I just talk to you about it.” My response would always be, what about when I’m not there, one day I won’t be able to pick up the phone, what then? I wanted them to learn to depend on God more than me. I wanted them to be able to push themselves, and pray for themselves when no one else was there to do it for them. I did not want to be a crutch to them.

-Dyamond

As we grow in Christ we must make sure that we are dependent solely upon God, so that we do not have to run to anyone to get in contact with Him. Our pastor’s and peers are great, but sometimes we are going to be alone, sometimes they won’t pick up that phone. We have to push ourselves even when we are distressed like David, we have to pray for ourselves. I love that the Scripture says, David strengthened himself in the Lord. We don’t just find that strength on our own. We learn to go to God ourself for ourselves and get an overflow of His strength. Whenever we need it, we know that we can turn to God. No one can do for us what God can. We have the opportunity to have a relationship with God and be intimate with Him same as the next person. We just have to know that we are capable of praying for and pushing ourselves. It doesn’t make us selfish or prideful, it means that we trust and depend on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:12

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

We also have to push ourselves when we are tired when we are ready to give up, when it’s too painful when everything is telling us to quit. We have to push ourselves. If we want that blessing, if we want that life of eternity with Christ, we must push ourselves to keep going even when we think we can’t take it anymore.

It’s like working out, when we workout we are working towards those summer beach bodies, and we have to push through the pain of the workout if we ever want to get our bodies summer ready. That means we have to run an extra mile even when we’re out of breath, do twenty more crunches when our abs are burning, do a few more chin ups when our arms feel like they can't lift anymore. It hurts, we’re breathing heavy, doing whatever we can to ease the pain, but we still feel it. We even feel it a couple of days after. But we keep going to the gym, we keep running, we keep lifting, because we want that body. We have a goal in mind, and we can’t stop until we reach it.

It’s the same when we are pressing towards the goal of perfection, when we are pushing towards whatever it is God has for us. There will be some pain, there will be reasons to quit, but God is bigger. Our faith is bigger than our weakness. Our faith in God surpasses our pain. We have our eye on a greater prize, and with that in mind. WE CANNOT STOP! We have to push, we can’t quit we have to keep going. Even when those muscles are sore from yesterday’s workout, keep going.  Because when all's said and done, all the pain, the heartache, and the tears and sweat will be worth it. It’s like spiritual fitness.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Know that you have the ability to encourage yourself, you have to push yourself when no one else is around. Find your strength in the Lord and keep moving forward. Talk to God about whatever is on your heart today ask Him to strengthen you, look to God first.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day and start to your week. Share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for day 81!